River Club: Kate Taylor - A lifetime of music

Monday

Feb 11, 2013 at 12:01 AMFeb 11, 2013 at 11:01 AM

Singer/songwriter Kate Taylor has spent her entire adult life intertwined with music, whether it has been - and continues to be - penning original songs, performing live shows, laying tracks in the recording studio, or offering her vocal talents to other musicians.

Ruth Thompson

Singer/songwriter Kate Taylor has spent her entire adult life intertwined with music, whether it has been - and continues to be - penning original songs, performing live shows, laying tracks in the recording studio, or offering her vocal talents to other musicians.

However, her connection to music actually stretches back to her childhood.

Born in New England but raised in North Carolina, Taylor is one of five children, and the only girl, in a family of singers/musicians, which includes brothers Livingston and James.

“Our parents were always very supportive of any creative leanings we might have expressed,” she said. “If father hadn't been an academic and a scientist he might have been a poet. Mother was very interested in all the arts and exposed us to as much of it as she could.”

There was always music playing in the Taylor house, and many different styles of music would be found on the turntable, Taylor said.

“Show tunes, James Brown, the Beatles, Woody Guthrie, Dylan Thomas,” she said. “There were comedy albums and Broadway shows. When we were coming up there was a strong and vibrant culture of music on the radio. Our lives were laced with it all.”

Taylor said she was influenced and inspired by so many musicians and singers it’s hard to list them all.

However, besides family members, Taylor said Jackie Wilson, Fontella Bass, Ella Fitzgerald, and Otis Redding, among others, would make the list.

“These are some of the artists who set the tone,” she said.

In junior high school she was part of a band, Peter, Paul and Mounds – like the candy bar. The name was a take on folk group Peter, Paul and Mary, who were extremely popular at the time.

In high school she said she was in a couple of bands that played rock and roll, and rhythm & blues.

“I also sang with my brothers around the table,” she added.

It was while visiting her brother, James, in London that she met legendary music producer Peter Asher.

“He heard me sing a couple of numbers with James in the bottom of an empty swimming pool,” she said. “He called me a few weeks later to ask if I wanted to make a record in Los Angeles. I was 19 and ready to rock.”

Asher would become her first producer and manager.

“It was a great time to be in LA,” she said.

In 1971 her debut album, “Sister Kate,” was released.

She went out on tour to promote the album, opening for bands such as Poco and America, “and some other groups that were happening at the time.”

But while life on the road, and in the studio, was like a dream come true, Taylor said once her tour was over she decided to take some time off.

She called and told Asher, who said, “OK.”

Then she retreated to Martha’s Vineyard, where she had spent her summers as a child.

“It became home base,” she said. “And it was really important for me to feel like I had a home base.”

Eventually she would meet the man she would marry, Charlie Witham, and with whom she would have two daughters.

But music was never far away.

She released her second album, “Kate Taylor,” in 1978 through Columbia Records. Her brother, James, was co-producer.

Touring to promote the album was a bit different this time around; she brought along her daughter, Elizabeth, who was then about two years old.

“It was really fun having a baby on tour,” she said.

She also played a few gigs with brothers, Alex and Hugh.

After her second daughter, Aretha, was born in 1981, however, Taylor said she realized she wouldn’t be able to do much touring with two small children.

“After that I’d have a gig here and there,” she said.

She and Charlie began working on her next album, which she said would take about six years to make.

It was during this time, she said, that Charlie became very ill.

“It became his life’s mission to finish this record,” she said.

He would pass away shortly before the album, “Beautiful Road,” was released in 2003.

She then threw herself into her music in earnest.

“The kids were launched and I was ready to rock,” she said.

In 2005 she released a live recording of a show she did in New York City.

Her first album of all original songs, “Fair Time” was released in 2009.

She continued with her live shows, playing at Carnegie Hall and the Newport Folk Festival, among other venues.

“It is an honor and a privilege to sing, and I thank my darling listeners for spending their precious time with me,” she said of performing live.

She is excited for her upcoming show at the River Club because she has heard “great things about the room,” she said.

“And my pals who have played there say the natives are very friendly.”

When asked how she would categorize her music, she replied, “essential.”

Looking back on her career, she said it’s been “an amazing journey” filled with “so many highlights.”

Like the time, shortly after the tour to promote her first album, when she was flying from Los Angeles back East and a stewardess approached her to tell her someone in the lounge wanted to meet her.

“I couldn’t think of who it could possibly be,” she said.

Following the stewardess into the lounge, she soon realized it was George Harrison.

He had seen a television broadcast of a two-day concert event at Central Park where Taylor had been one of the acts.

“He wanted to meet me,” she said. “I was stunned. The whole experience was surreal.”

Taylor said her music has probably changed somewhat since those early years.

“It’s a progressive thing,” she said. “It lives and breathes and grows, as I do. That is my hope and intention, anyway. But the styles of music that I sing are the same.”

She still likes to sing rhythm and blues, country, gospel, blues, folk, rockabilly, traditional folk ballads, and show tunes.

“We have a good time,” she said of her live shows. “I do a lot of different types of shows. It’s very relaxing and fun. I tell a few stories and sing the songs. I think it’s a nice way to spend an evening.”

Kate Taylor is performing at the River Club Music Hall at 8 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 16. Tickets are $25. For more information on upcoming shows at the River Club, or to purchase tickets, visit www.theriverclubmusichall.com